The Ultimate Fighting Championship’s 2020 calendar is full, but
Conor
McGregor has the opportunity to fight Dustin
Poirier early next year if he wishes to accept the promotion’s
offer.
UFC president Dana White told
ESPN that he wants to book McGregor vs. Poirier for Jan. 23.
However, McGregor recently wrote on Twitter that he wants to fight
before the end of the year and would accept dates on Nov. 21, Dec.
12 and Dec. 19.
Hello Dustin! I accepted the @ufc offer to
fight you, but told them it must happen in 2020. I’m ready for Nov
21st, given that cards recent injury issues, as well as any of the
December dates, the 12th and the 19th. I’ll also still donate the
$500k to The Good Fight Foundation https://t.co/23hN4AHtoI— Conor McGregor (@TheNotoriousMMA)
October 8, 2020
“We offered him a fight. We got him his own date,” White told ESPN. “We didn’t have a date this year. We have everything laid out for
this year, with world champions fighting for titles. He wants to
fight Dustin
Poirier apparently, so we went to [broadcast partner] ESPN and
got him his own date. He’s been offered Dustin
Poirier on Jan. 23.
“It’s a yes or no answer.”
UFC 255 on Nov. 21 and UFC 256 on Dec. 12 currently have two title
fights apiece, while the Dec. 19 is not expected to be a
pay-per-view and could not accommodate a star of McGregor’s
stature. White said the promotion would not move any of those
scheduled championship fights for McGregor, who announced his
retirement for a third time earlier this year.
“That’s not how it works,” White said. “We laid out this year. He
was retired. Would anybody disagree he was retired? Through this
crazy pandemic year we’re going through, we faced a lot of
challenges. There were a lot of things done to make this thing
work. We made it happen. We have our schedule laid out. Fighters
have committed to it. Fighters have started training for these
fights. Conor came back and wants to fight Dustin, so we went out
and got him his own date. It’s Jan. 23.”